Any crazy perfectionists for vft looks?

[sherkas]

I find myself addicted to the perfect look of when a VFT has its leafs out spred and with each trap vertical.

I find when my vft start to get conjested and the leafs arn't all spaced out evenly or when traps start to go horizontal (one side on the ground, the other up) I end up getting toothpicks and using them as posts to prop and turn the traps and keep the leafs spaced out.

All I know is I feel bad doing it but the next day when every trap is proper looking and everything is spaced out... it looks gorgeous. After a few days you can usually take the pics out and it holds its perfect form.

anyone else like this?

[vraev]

well....I used to feel that way when I started too. Even with my neps...I used to wait to see a full circle of leaves. But the best thing to do is let the plant grow the way it likes. Give it good conditions and it grows like a waterwheel with plants at all angles 360 degrees around the corm.

[Sawchuk]

i suppose i was a bit obbsessive, But not that way, I was more crazy over building something to accomodate the plants conditions, although unsuccesful in a way, thats were i was spending my spare time, Learning and reading etc. lots of time on the forum

a solution to that would be to get more plants buddy, i remember watchin each new leaf grow each day on each of my plants, lol this was becasue i only had so few , once i got more and multiple setups that obsessive nature was lost but i still tend to my plants more then is neccessary.

I FIND that all plants grow better when not constently handled and moved and tweaked, etc as you may be doing, place this plant under the right conditions and it will grow perfect rosette's around its corm, if properly rotated and cared for, which im sure your doing. you just may be over caring for it. as we all prob have one point or another.

say you had 50VFT's would you still be staking each leaf?? and is this benifical for the plant??

Adam

[flytrapcare.com]

Yep Sawchuk is right. When you start getting a lot of plants, it's hard to even find the time to trim off all the dead traps.

[sherkas]

If I had 50 vft I might still stake them lol... it all depends on time. I know most of the time its not good for them cause I got shaky hands and I constantly trigger the traps. But however once its done they stay untouched for a long time. It also depends... if most of the traps are proper (which over time they do) then im not too crazy but if its just a messy looking vft then I will for sure clean it up.

I do have abunch more plants coming soon for a early x-mas present to myself so we will see once I get all of those if I still keep them looking pretty

[vraev]

I think the bottom line here is that you shouldn't bother staking the leaves into shape. Let the plant do its thing. In time it will form a nice rosette. If you still want a nice rosetted vft....buy some from Hawaiian botanicals or keehns. You can then keep yourself occupied with that.

Also do not that you don't want to un-necessarily cause stress by meddling with the plant.

[khoas]

It true as your collection grows you will spend less time on each plant. I can barely keep up with the watering, let alone the potting and pruning.
On the other hand you end up spend more time just staring at your plants.

[lloyd]

My son calls it "staring mindlessly at my plants time".

[Rick Hillier]

I used to be like that with my S. purpureas back in the day. Then I realized that these things have a mind of their own and will do whatever they want. Now, if they're healthy, I'm happy.